The Shadow Queen. Bertrice Small

lives will continue as they always have,” Lara told her daughters.

      “How can they without Father?” Marzina responded anxiously. “Nothing will ever be the same again, Mother! Nothing!”

      “You are correct,” Lara said. “Nothing will ever be the same as it has been with Magnus Hauk in our midst. It will be totally different, and yet it will also be familiar. Although your father has left us, it does not mean we will change the pattern of our days. Tomorrow you and Zagiri will begin your lessons once again, and Anoush will prepare for her annual trek to the New Outlands to visit her father’s family. If Taj is back then he will resume his studies once more. Your father would not want us to stop living because he is no longer living.”

      “Taj is the Dominus now,” Marzina replied. “Why should he need to continue studying? He is his own man.”

      “Taj is still a boy, and his capacity for knowledge will never be satisfied, for he is like his father,” Lara said. “Besides, no man, or woman for that matter, should rule from a position of ignorance, Marzina. And none of us should ever stop learning.”

      “You don’t know half of what you will need to know to be a good Terahn wife,” Zagiri remarked. “Even I still have much to learn, and I am four years your senior.”

      “I do not need to know any more about cooking and soap making,” Marzina said scornfully. “I want to learn more magic. Grandmother Ilona has promised to teach me.”

      “And provided your behavior is exemplary over these next few months I shall allow you to go to her just before the Icy Season,” Lara said quietly.

      Marzina’s eyes widened with surprise and delight. “Oh, Mother!” she gasped. “Really? Truly? I can go to Grandmother soon?”

      “If you show me that you are mature enough to be taught by your grandmother, Marzina, then just before the Icy Season begins you may go to the Forest Kingdom. But not a moment before. If, however, you act the spoiled princess as you sometimes do, if you play wicked magic tricks on the servants, then I shall decide that you are not yet old enough to be away from home. Your grandmother will not be an easy taskmistress.”

      “I will be good,” Marzina promised.

      “Hah!” Zagiri said scornfully. “I shall be amazed if you are.” She mischievously stuck her tongue out at her younger sister. “Want to turn me into a toadstool, brat?”

      Marzina’s purple eyes narrowed dangerously. “Not at all,” she said sweetly, “but I might make your careless tongue sprout with toadstools, sister dear.”

      Zagiri shrieked, horrified, for she knew Marzina could do exactly what she threatened to do.

      “This is not the kind of behavior that will gain you the privilege of going to your grandmother’s, Marzina,” her mother said quietly.

      “I didn’t say I would, Mother. I just said I might,” Marzina answered pertly.

      Lara had to laugh. “Well, threatening is as bad as doing it, so control your anger in the future. You must learn that or else your magic will control you, and not the other way around.” She turned to Zagiri. “You are happy being what you are, my golden daughter. Please let Marzina be what she is meant to be. You should help one another. Now I would be alone in my garden. Leave me, my darlings.”

      They all arose from the soft lawn, and the three sisters hurried back into the castle. Lara walked to the end of her garden, and, reaching a wall, looked down the Dominus’s Fjord and out to the sea. Suddenly she could just make out a faint smudge of lavender upon the horizon. It would be the sails of Corrado’s vessel, and it was headed home. A wave of sadness overwhelmed her briefly. It was finished. Magnus was gone. She felt the ice about her cold faerie heart harden with her admission of fact. The small bit of mortal within her retreated, cowed by the magic thundering through her veins now. There was no time for mortal weakness anymore.

      But her brief mourning had weakened her. She needed to go where she might regain her strength again, and she knew just the place. But first she must set her household in order. Taj would return by nightfall. She could not escape until everything was as it should be. She would ask Corrado to stay at the castle while she was gone, for she could not leave her children without proper supervision. But she needed a few days to herself. She needed to draw deep from her well of strength. Even a faerie woman had her limits though few would consider that.

      Lara felt a soft breeze touch her face. It smelled of both the sea and the spring flowers that grew on the cliffs around them. She breathed deep, and felt a wave of peace flow over her. A smile touched her lips. She would have a small respite before she would be needed. Her instincts told her that, and Lara was both glad and relieved. Looking out toward the sea, she could see the lavender smudge taking on the shape of sails. The return of Corrado’s ship meant a whole new era was beginning. And once again Lara’s destiny was moving closer.

      CHAPTER THREE

      THE OASIS OF Zeroun sat amid the rough golden desert sands. Above it was a cloudless blue sky with its bright, hot sun shining down. The sun felt good on her shoulders. Little had changed in the years since she and her giant friend, Og, had stopped at the oasis. The great tall trees with their curving, rough brown trunks capped by crowns of green fronds still towered over it. The stone well still stood at its center. And that wonderful oddity in the midst of the desert, a crystal pool with a soft sandy bottom and a waterfall amid the rocks of the oasis. Lara smiled as she looked about her. There was nothing in sight but desert. Once she had thought the sight both beautiful and frightening, but that was before her faerie powers had fully manifested themselves. Now as Lara gazed upon the world about her she simply thought it beautiful.

      A wave of her hand, and a pale turquoise-blue silk tent with a striped turquoise and coral silk awning was erected. Lara stepped inside, and waved her hand once more. A large platform covered with a lime-green silk feather mattress appeared, and above it another awning striped in lime-green and gold. A single low ebony table materialized, a polished brass bowl filled with succulent fresh fruits in its center along with a crystal decanter of Frine. Multicolored pillows in shades of blue, coral and green popped from the air itself, and surrounded the table. An ebony trunk banded in brass appeared at the foot of the bed. Lara smiled. It was perfect.

      Shedding her single white robe, she walked from the tent and into the cool waters of the pool. The sand beneath her feet was as soft as she remembered it. She swam slowly about the pool, emerging beneath the waterfall and letting the icy stream soak her pale golden head. Swimming back to the edge of the pool, she emerged to let the sun warm her naked body. Lara sighed deeply. It was perfect. For the next few days she would be free of all cares. Alone. She would rest and regain her strength in this place she remembered so fondly from her girlhood. Returning to the tent, she lay down, and slept for the next several hours.

      When she awoke the night was falling. Lara stepped outside the tent and placed a small protective spell about the oasis. She might have raised a fire in the old stone fire pit that was still there, but she chose not to do so. While the Oasis of Zeroun was off the beaten track, she still did not want a fire attracting the attention of anyone wandering the desert at night. She magicked a brazier to heat her tent. Then she conjured a small loaf of warm bread, and a bit of cheese that she ate with her fruit. Having satisfied her appetite, she fell back into bed, and slept until midday of the following day.

      For the next three days she followed the same routine. She ate, she slept, she swam, and now and again she let the hot desert sun bake her for a few minutes. Lara could feel the strength flowing back into her from the moment she had awakened that first morning. Stepping through her tent on the fourth evening, she found Kaliq waiting for her. “My lord!” she said, surprised to see him. Lara walked to the ebony trunk, and drew forth a pale green silk gauze gown which she slipped on over her head.

      “Did you really think you could come into the Kingdom of the Shadow Princes, and I would not know you were here?” he asked her, smiling his seductive smile.

      “Did I need your permission to come